Syracuse and Siena started their season in the Carrier Dome much the same way 2014 began. Last season, Syracuse topped the Saints 19-7. This year looked like it should have been a much closer matchup, with Syracuse still coming away with the win. Instead, it was a bigger rout as the Orange would walk away with a 21-7 win.
Syracuse dominated this game from start to finish. The biggest takeaway from this game is how well the midfield performed in both the offensive end and at the face-off X. On offense, the Orange scored nine goals in the first half with all their starters in. Of those nine goals, only two did not involve a midfielder. One of those two was an unassisted goal from Kevin Rice and the other was a Rice feed to Dylan Donahue on man-up. Hakeem Lecky showed something that many Syracuse fans were hoping to see: the ability to pass coming off a dodge. He equaled his 2014 season total of assists only seven minutes into the season, finishing with four on the day in addition to a goal. His first line teammates Henry Schoonmaker and Nicky Galasso finished with one and three goals respectively.
Some bad news for the midfield right before the game was that Jordan Evans would be sitting out due to a lower body injury. Filling in for him on the second middie line would be Derek DeJoe, running alongside Tim Barber and Nick Weston. DeJoe and Weston would both finish with a goal each, and Barber with a goal and an assist. DeJoe would also be featured on the man-up unit along with the regular starting attack, Galasso and Schoonmaker. Overall, the Syracuse first two lines of middies performed even better than expected. This leaves future teams with the knowledge that putting emphasis on Syracuse’s explosive attack trio will not slow down the Orange offense.
Face-offs were a huge bright spot for the team as well. The Orange’s struggle at the X for a few years has been well documented. Struggle is of course relative as they have been averaging right around 50% for several seasons, but have been on the wrong side of some very lopsided battles against some of the country’s top FOGOs at inopportune times. Ben Williams won the starting job after transferring in from Holy Cross this year. He would go on to win 17 of 20 and score a goal after one of them. He struggled early on with getting a good pass out of his stick after quick wins, but this worked itself out through the game. The best solution seemed to be getting the ball to Mike Messina on the wing, who single handedly saved many Syracuse possession and finished with eight ground balls.
Helping Williams at the X were Cal Paduda, who hadn’t seen time since his 3-13 performance against Duke in the 2013 NCAA championship game (he would finish 5-7), Mike Iacono (1-1), and Joe DeMarco (2-2). What really sticks out is Williams’ 17-20 though, equating to 85%. Now Syracuse has had several great individual games from their FOGOs over the past several years. Many of them have been regularly in the 60s and 70s for a face-off winning percentage which usually classifies as a very solid game, but 85% is pretty high.
To put things in perspective, the last time Syracuse had a primary FOGO win at this rate, you have to go back to March, 24 2007. Syracuse played Binghamton on that date and Jon Jerome would win 18-21 for a percentage of 85.7%. Now, most Syracuse fans will insist that season never happened, since it broke a streak of 24 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances after their 5-8 record, but it did. Trust me, there are records and stuff about this. One game does not a season make, but Ben Williams might be carried to classes by fellow students if he keeps this up.
On defense, Bobby Wardwell started in net and also was in goal to start the second half before Warren Hill took over between the pipes. Wardwell allowed four goals while making five saves and Hill had three of each. Hill definitely was shaky with the ball in this stick and almost let a Siena player steal it from him in the crease, but he did make some solid saves. Wardwell deserves to still be the starter, but Hill may push him for more minutes as he becomes more comfortable with both division 1 lacrosse and Syracuse. In front of them, the defense rotated constantly. Brandon Mullins and Sean Young started as expected with Jay McDermott taking the third spot. It wasn’t long before Bobby Tait and Ralph D’Agostino were also taking shifts on defense. This is a position to watch as the season goes on as there is a big battle for playing time.
For Siena, it’s hard to find a bright spot when you lose by 14. Richie Hurley of course got his points, finishing with two goals and three assists, but that was rather expected. Who played outstanding in the limited offensive opportunities was freshman Chris Robertson. The Ontario native, who also played for The Hill Academy, showed great finishing potential, including the game’s lone behind the back goal which he scored while cutting through the middle of the defense off-ball. That is probably a name you will hear brought up in the future. Where Siena really fell apart was on defense. They allowed themselves to be very spread out, giving Syracuse many high percentage shots from the inside of the field. When Syracuse middies dodged from anywhere, they found wide open lanes to either pass or shoot, resulting in an astounding 42% shooting percentage. Most of Siena’s future schedule won’t be against teams with this sort of firepower, but their post-season hopes are severely limited if this keeps up through the season.
Syracuse has the week off before Cornell makes the short bus trip up on Sunday, February 15 in what will be a much better test. Siena also has a week to regroup before the host Hobart for a date on Valentine’s day.
